Interpol insider on the frightening extent of child abuse networks

A wave of international arrests may have broken the back of one of the worst child abuse rings authorities have yet seen, but it is highly likely, one insider expert says, that there is still far worse out there.

Police in almost 100 countries have arrested nearly 350 people internationally and rescued 386 victims in an operation centred on Toronto, Canada.

Professor S. Caroline Taylor is a consultant to the international criminal policing body Interpol and an academic with RMIT and Edith Coward University.

"Unfortunately I am not surprised at the extent of it nor am I surprised at the types of professional people that have been identified as being part of it," Professor Taylor told 702 Mornings.

"These rings are ongoing around the world, this is only one, it's a large one but its only one of what will be hundreds of them."

PROFESSIONALS

"And the profiles of the perpetrators being police and medical practitioners and priests and former priests and teachers doesn't surprise me. That's pretty much on par with many of the offenders I come across in my work," she said.

Professor Taylor said she was aware arrests in this case were imminent, fanning out as they did from Canada across around the world including Australia.

An important element of the case, she said, was the arrest of a 42-year-old Toronto man, Brian Way, charged with making, possessing, distributing and exporting child exploitation.

She said it was critical to get those "higher up the chain," the "key figures" who drive the multi-million dollar industry.

ENCRYPTION

Professor Taylor said it was fascinating and disturbing to see the levels that distributors go to in order to avoid detection of abuse material.

"In order to avoid detection, they sell what looks like a common video of a film by encrypted within that video is a child abuse film," she said.

"So that should someone pop the video in just to check that it's a fair dinkum video they see that it's a normal film and you may need to watch an hour and a half of film before you see the encrypted piece," she said

Professor Taylor praised police for the level of investigation and co-ordination required to swoop in such a case, where actions needed to be co-ordinated, so as not to tip off the targets of police action, not only across time zones but also across jurisdictions.

CHILDREN

While 386 young people and children were rescued in the operation, there would be hundreds more still to be identified by police who have an image bank of tens of thousands of young people yet to be identified, many still presumably in danger.

And Professor Taylor revealed that most of the children in these situations are victims of their own families.

"The majority of children used in the making of child abuse material are children used by their families," she said.

And while police may have smashed this one ring, and earlier rings, the abuse images will remain permanently on the internet somewhere around the world, as other abusers continue with these crimes.